Tracing the Cultural Background of Lone-Wolf Terrorism: Dilemmas, Contradictions, and Opportunities for the Next Decade

Abstract

The end of the Cold War, as well as the collapse of the Soviet Union, posed new greater challenges and risks for the “Global North.” Terrorism—doubtless—seems to be one of them. Over the recent years, and particularly after 9/11, terrorists changed the focus of their attacks. While classic terrorism targeted important persons such as politicians, chief police officers, or celebrities, modern terrorism planned attacks on leisure-spots spaces, tourist destinations, and lay-persons. This is particularly troublesome for policymakers (who are in charge of orchestrating all-pervading models to preserve homeland security) and for field-workers who are seriously punished when they are in contact with radicalized cells. For this reason, specialists traverse for many problems to understand the complexity of terrorism as well as the motivation of young lone-wolves to attack societies where they are native. The present conceptual research focuses not only on the borders of travel literature but also the colonial stereotypes forged during the European expansion to draw and model an “alterity” strictly limited to the ideals of the Enlightenment. In a nutshell, the allegories revolving around the “lone-wolf terrorism” continues the imprint of the “archetype of the noble savage” coined in 18th century.